


This Side of Paradise

by hyukabot



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Adorable Huening Kai, Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Choi Soobin Is a Tease, Eventual Smut, M/M, Mutual Pining, Senior Choi Soobin, Sexual Tension, Sophomore Huening Kai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:40:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24507055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyukabot/pseuds/hyukabot
Summary: "What—oh, oh no, I’m so sorry!" Kai squeaked in panic, grabbing the handle of his backpack and sliding it down the table so that it landed not so nicely on the floor.Then, both boys watched in slow motion as Kai's coffee cup toppled from side to side before it leaned too far towards his seatmate, and it was tipping over, the hot liquid contents spilling out——right onto the purple-haired boy's computer.Kai gasped, getting a hand on either side of the laptop, lifting it up, but it was too late. The coffee had gotten past the keys and the screen was now blinking, steam beginning to rise from the keyboard."Oh my god.” he screeched.(Kai felt as if he was watching a horror movie. But no, this was his life.)
Relationships: Choi Soobin & Choi Beomgyu, Choi Soobin & Huening Kai, Choi Soobin/Huening Kai, Choi Yeonjun & Huening Kai, Huening Kai/Kang Taehyun
Comments: 14
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

The length of Kai's Monday morning felt longer than the entirety of meager weekend. He had a slightly sore throat, and the burning hot coffee sliding he was throwing back wasn't helping. Up at five and out of the apartment he shared with his big brother to arrive at the small coffee shop that seemed to attract _many_ early risers, and then at eight thirty on his way over to his nine o'clock class at his university. The morning fog had cleared at this point, and Kai had to squint at the street ahead of him.

It was panning out to be a hot day, once again. The café he worked was an exact medium between his apartment and the university. There was no point wasting money on gas, and the risk of getting his bike stolen was too high, so walking would suit him just fine.

He had snacked on a banana and Frappuccino earlier this morning, so the coffee was a little unnecessary, if not just something to make Kai feel better. Normally his first period class was physiology, which was pretty much a self-taught class where the students would work on labs or dissections for one hour two times a week, but he switched out at the end of the semester. Now, he had journalism. It wasn't what he was majoring in, but he did enjoy writing and his brother Yeonjun thought it would be good for Kai to publish some things before he got out of college.

He entered the classroom, and it was by no means a small room. It was a complete computer lab, although most students preferred to write their pieces on their own laptops. It was a class that was predominantly girls, but there were boys in between every two girls it seemed like, loving the attention.

Kai shifted the weight of his backpack on his shoulder, feeling comfy in his charcoal graphic tee and dark washed jeans and took a seat in the back, slamming his bag onto the tabletop. It shook the whole table, and the boy next to him looked up, scowling. Not missing a beat, Kai proceeded to pull out his silver laptop from the bag and then the white charger following quickly after. He plopped down; rubbing his face with both hands and then blinked exaggeratedly after. There was nothing actually due so he didn't plan on actually doing anything this period.

"Excuse me," came a curt voice beside him. And then it occurred to Kai there was other people in this world.

"What—oh, oh no, I’m so sorry!" Kai squeaked in panic, grabbing the handle of his backpack and sliding it down the table so that it landed not so nicely on the floor.

Then, both boys watched in slow motion as Kai's coffee cup toppled from side to side before it leaned too far towards his seatmate, and it was tipping over, the hot liquid contents spilling out—

—right onto the purple-haired boy's computer.

Kai gasped, getting a hand on either side of the laptop, lifting it up, but it was too late. The coffee had gotten past the keys and the screen was now blinking, steam beginning to rise from the keyboard.

"Oh my god.” he screeched.

Kai felt as if he was watching a horror movie. But no, this was his life.

"What the fuck, Huening Kai?" The boy cussed him with a low, deep voice. He had now gotten the attention of the entire class and the teacher, who had raised her head and had gotten out of her seat to approach both boys.

"I am _so_ sorry," Kai said, out of his seat now and looking at the boy with apologetic eyes and truly distressed expression.

"You—what were you thinking?" he asked once more, his expression dark, and then it finally hit Kai. He knew this boy… Maybe it wasn't the appropriate time for such heavy recognition.

But it was Choi Soobin.

Shit.

The reason Kai must not have noticed who he was earlier was probably because of the thick-framed glasses that he was wearing and his newly dyed purple-colored hair. He was wearing a gray hoodie that seemed to cling to his upper body, and a pair of worn washed jeans accompanied by a pair of classic vanilla Vans. As classic as it sounded, Soobin was his neighbor; their apartment rooms were right next to each other. He was a senior whereas Kai was a sophomore. Kai hadn't even noticed Soobin was in the same class that he had just transferred into a little over a week and a half ago.

"Soobin," Kai breathed, a blush forming over his cheeks and his ears beginning to burn with embarrassment at how he had just whispered the boy's name. Shit fuck what was that?

There was no mistaking it—Soobin was pissed, and he had definitely caught the way he addressed him. And the weight of it all hit the younger boy, the fact that this was Kai's fault, he had just completely ruined Soobin's expensive computer after all.

"I would like to have a word with you." That was Soobin. Polite and well-kempt at all times. There was never a time where Kai had seen him loose as much control as he just had over two minutes ago.

“Um—”

"Outside."

With a worried expression, Kai followed a fuming Soobin outside where the prying ears of the journalism students couldn't listen in and even possibly make a story out of this fiasco.

The door closed behind Kai and Soobin pinched the bridge of his nose. "Goddamn it, Kai."

"Soobin, I'm really sorry. I'm so, _so sorry_. If there is anything I can do—"

"Pay me upfront one thousand eight hundred dollars, maybe?" Soobin asked brashly, cocking his head to the side in a way that caught Kai off guard.

Kai was silent. "I—I don't have the money? My brother got into Yonsei for next year; all my money is going towards his education. It was the truth. There’s no way he’s going to let his brother lose another chance at having a proper education. No way.

Soobin had a compassionate look on his face for a moment before he dropped it and was cold once again.

"You're missing the point, you just—"

"Nope, Soobin, I see the point clearly," Kai cut him off, holding up his hands. "I fucked up, and I know it, and I don't have the money right now, but if I could just pay you installments or…?"

Soobin perked up at this, looking confused, although interested in some aspects. "Installments?" he questioned and Kai blushed. The expressions that Soobin, and only Soobin, created were priceless. Absolutely striking.

To be honest, Kai had a crush on him.

Or so he thought. He hoped and was internally praying—something he usually would avoid at all costs—that this wouldn't ruin their friendship. Kai had casually suggested for the two of them to maybe walk together to classes (before they were both in journalism) but then Kai changed his work hours because he knew he would have to put in more effort towards Yeonjun's funding.

So. The whole crush thing was a little hazy, but nevertheless _there_. Kai was interested. Hell, Soobin was a full package—tall, good-looking, bright future, _older._ It was custom to Kai to like girls (generally) and occasionally boys that were younger than him, but what he really craved was for someone to be older and stronger than him, someone to take care of him. It was weird, and he knew it, but that didn't stop him.

Kai nodded. "You know, pay over time…?"

Soobin scrunched his face up, hiding all traces of emotion. He seemed to be mulling something over in his head, but not completely able to make up his mind. "We could do that."

Kai almost felt the urge to blush. The way Soobin spoke slowly with care and consideration made Kai have to bit his lower lip, to not say something stupid. And his choice of words made Kai's mind wander. _We_ could _do that. We could do lots of things_ , he thought internally.

The bell rang and the class dismissed itself, the students rushing out.

Soobin stared at Kai a while longer before he purposefully brushed up against Kai as he slinked past, "I’ll contact you later, Kai."

His heart jolted for a second there and he gulped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Thanks a lot, Kai," Soobin said, another one of those gorgeous grateful smiles on his lips. He placed a hard, warm hand on Kai's barely clothed thigh—only noticing how high his shorts had rode up at that time. "I really appreciate your help. Hopefully you could help me out with something else again soon?"
> 
> Kai gulped, his throat tight and dry. "N—no problem, Soobin."
> 
> I’m doomed.

Kai cursed, tumbling out of bed and towards the stranger who was banging on his door. The sleepy man didn't seem to care to look in a mirror or even check the peephole before he pulled the door open. "Are you fucking serious?" he asked in an annoyed voice before he could even get a good look at the person standing in front of him. His eyes opened and expanded rapidly. "Wait…"

Kai furrowed his brows.

It was… Soobin?

The purple-haired boy raised a hand. "Hi. Sorry to bother. But I was wondering when we could start those installments?"

Kai's jaw dropped. Here his gorgeous neighbor stood right at his doorstep, wearing a pair of Nike shorts and a white tee looking out of breath. "Soobin, it's only been one day…"

Soobin smiled then, and it almost took Kai's breath away. It was only yesterday morning that Kai had spilled the coffee all over Soobin' expensive laptop.

"I thought you said installments were a way to pay others back over time," he said, cocking his head to the side, as if confused.

"Yeah, but there's no need to—"

Kai found himself stuck. He couldn't exactly form any noises from his lips when he met his eyes with Soobin's dark ones. His cheeks were red, but not from any of the stupid and girly emotions that Kai was currently feeling. It seemed more like he had just gotten back from a work out. Why he was working out on a Tuesday at nine at night, Kai would never know. If he wasn’t mistaken Soobin hated workouts, so this was quite a surprise.

"And," Kai started, breaking the contact and looking at Soobin's Nike running shoes, "when we agreed I would pay you back, I meant like—"

"Kai," Soobin smiled as he spoke, his plump pink lips looking extremely kissable in that moment. "I don't need your money."

Furrowing his brows, Kai looked at Soobin like he had grown another head. "I… I—what? But you said you needed it?"

"I decided I would feel better if I were to teach you a lesson and you would, well, work for me. It occurred to me that I can afford another computer, although it will take about a month due to my working logistics," he said, still kind of half smiling at Kai.

Kai clenched the doorknob in his hand before letting go and running those fingers through his hair. "Teach me a lesson?"

"Yes, I have found that it actually works when you drill it into children's heads long enough, they finally understand what it was that they did wrong in the first place."

"Hang on, Soobin, did you just call me a child?"

Completely disregarding Kai's question, he proceeded. "I have two younger siblings and I think I may have told you about them before. Soohye had this phase where he would pretend she didn't know who he was or where she was from and wouldn't eat anything other than leafs because she refused to acknowledge that she wasn't a rabbit."

Slowly, Kai cocked his head to the side.

"I don't really know why I told you that. But nevertheless, their habits subsided when met with punishment."

"Are you…. are you saying my accidental spilling of coffee onto your computer which happened _once_ , is a habit?" Kai asked, a little more than extra sass added to his question.

Soobin's lips twitched. "Kai, please. That is hardly a factor in this any longer."

"Soobin, you're not giving me anything to work with here!" Kai was becoming hot with anger at being woken up when he had just seemed to drift off to sleep over a half hour ago. It wasn't like he was required to go to bed early, but he only had one morning class today and had worked the rest of the day at the coffee shop and his legs were sore from cramping under his weight all day.

"As I understand you know, the walls in our apartment complex are very, very thin," Soobin said, nodding at his door that was next to his room. Kai involuntarily gulped. "Friday night when I was on the phone, do you recall?" There was nothing seemingly wrong with this conversation they were having, but Kai's face flushed heavily. Oh shit, he realized what was about to come out. "I was speaking to my mother, when all of a sudden, I hear loud panting coming from the other side of the wall.”

His eyes widenend. Soobin smirks.

"You know, you seemed to enjoy pleasuring yourself to the sound of my voice as I talked to my family."

Kai's face transformed to one of horror. He didn't know what to say, what would be the proper comeback to that. His brain couldn't process anything due to the fact that he was short-circuiting.

Soobin laughed now, completely unaffected. "And I know it wasn't the first time. But there is no need to be embarrassed. I won't tell anybody." He was smiling again, and Kai felt like his heart was going into over drive. He was surprised Soobin hadn't commented on the fact that his breathing had become erratic and messy.

"I can keep a secret if you can, Kai." A scarlet blush seemed to be tattooed onto Kai's face. He didn't think he would be able to speak in this other boys' presence again. "So come over why don't you? I have some things I need help with."

Kai glanced at the watch on his wrist that he refuses to take off when it's time for bed. It was nearing ten but he didn't have classes until after lunch tomorrow so he didn't really have that large of a reason to turn Soobin down. Besides, what's the worst that can happen when it involved a scantily clad Soobin?

Speaking of scanty, Kai was wearing little to nothing. Actually, he was clad in just a pair of loose t-shirt and shorts. He had taken a shower and pulled the article on, noticing that all his boxers and briefs were in the washing machine.

And the head of his twitching cock was becoming just the tiniest bit prominent.

Luckily, Kai looked over at the small living room space to the side of the front door and found a white tee that he had gotten a couple years ago from donating to a charity. Nervously, he glanced back into his house one last time, making sure he couldn't hear his brother stirring before he closed the door behind him, barefoot. He really shouldn't be worrying about his brother when he was behind his gorgeous neighbor and about to enter his house.

Gulping like a fish out of air, Kai followed the purple-haired boy into the apartment, almost completely identical to his, but seemed cleaner, more sophisticated what with the spotless white walls and unscratched hardwood floors.

Soobin led Kai into the living room that had the same layout as his own apartments, but the couch was black leather instead of Kai and Yeonjun's brown fabric one. And there was a cute polka dot rug underneath a glass coffee table that Soobin dropped his house keys onto. Standing in front of the TV, Soobin crossed his arms.

"I feel like an idiot, but I don't know how to hook up the TV to my DVD player, and I've been meaning to call someone to help, but I haven't gotten around to it." Soobin looked a little ashamed, a small cherry colored blush spreading like wildfire over Soobin' cheeks.

Kai sort of half smiled, trying to get the obnoxiously adorable embarrassed Soobin face out of his head so that his littler head wouldn't wake up… If you know what he means. "Psh, yeah, Soobin. I can take care of this. Just, go get yourself some food and I'll be working on this."

Kai didn't think he had ever seen someone look so grateful. "Thank you, Kai," Soobin said happily, suddenly stripping off his shirt right before his guest. "I'm going to take a shower, if you don't mind."

"Dead kittens. Dead kittens. Dead kittens." Rather, _stop trying to give me a boner, you ass!_

Soobin's head perked up. "What's that?"

Shooting both his eyebrows up, Kai looked at Soobin in question. "What's that? What's what? Nothing. I don't know what you're talking about." He smiled, as if it was really nothing, and then kneeled down before Soobin.

For a second, a flash of hunger and desire was visible in Soobin's dark eyes and Kai felt a shiver run down his spine. He clenched and unclenched his jaw, imagining that look in Soobin's eye over and over in his brain.

"I—I've got it from here," Kai said, facing the DVD player that sat atop a cardboard box with a pamphlet beside it. Soobin nodded once before turning around and heading down the hall towards the bathroom that was next to the master's bedroom.

Kai set to work reading the clear instructions and plugging the right colored chords into the right inputs. It really didn't seem to be too demanding, and wondered momentarily why it had been so difficult for Soobin. He dropped the packet of paper on the floor next to him and took a deep breath, looking towards the bathroom. The water from the shower had stopped running and Kai pondered what Soobin was still doing in there.

And then, out of the blue, Soobin emerged from the bathroom, a heavy flush on his cheeks and his hair a big flop of dark-purple on his head, the entirety of his body completely and absolutely _naked._ His skin hue was creamy, and a little red from the heat of the shower, Kai judged from the amount of steam that escaped the room when Soobin came out. Soobin didn't turn to the slack-jawed boy sitting on his calved before his TV as he headed towards his room, and Kai was sure not to miss the undeniably sexy way Soobin carried his self, his hips swaying back and forth and his abs, Kai thought, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the perfectly shaped contour of it. He was mesmerized, but all too quickly, Soobin was out of the hall and in his room.

And holy shit what was that fire that was burning from in between Kai's legs? He almost didn't want to look down.

Due to the thinness of his shorts, the head of Kai's cock was completely visible. He was painfully hard; his balls tight and shaft twitching. Brushing his hand over his tip, he moaned loudly and breathily, feeling the wetness seeping out of his slit.

"Shit," Kai whispered hoarsely. He was going to need to get rid of this before Soobin came back out. But, unfortunately, the dead kittens weren't working like earlier. He felt doomed, so he began to think about fat, hairy old pedophile men with thick protruding tongues and long, saggy arms and long, claw like fingernails—

"Kai, why are you making that face?"

Shaken out of his reverie, Kai nearly jumped at Soobin's spontaneous arrival. He dared a glance down and sighed in relieve when he saw that his dick had decided to slip back into its slumber and Kai was out of trouble once again at the mercy of his cock. "I just, uh, had this weird, vivid day dream I guess."

Soobin pursed his lips and nodded at the electronic device. He dropped to his knees like Kai and observed how it was neatly plugged into his TV now. "You got it to work?"

"Yeah, I mean, it wasn't that hard, Soobin," Kai said, not purposely trying to be rude.

Soobin laughed and leaned forward, across Kai's lap, to press a yellow button on the DVD player. Kai visibly tensed and Soobin seemed indifferent, but slowly, a smug smirk made its way onto his face.

"Thanks a lot, Kai," Soobin said, another one of those gorgeous grateful smiles on his lips. He placed a hard, warm hand on Kai's barely clothed thigh—only noticing how high his shorts had rode up at that time. "I really appreciate your help. Hopefully you could help me out with something else again soon?"

Kai gulped, his throat tight and dry. "N—no problem, Soobin."

_I’m doomed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay that took me like a whole week to write please tell me your thoughts down below, have a great weekend!

**Author's Note:**

> I know I shouldn't have started another fic when I have another going on but I jsut can't get this idea out of my mind! Please tell me your thoughts down below, have a great weekend!


End file.
